Question about Film Distribution

[American Baron]

Hi all,

I have to admit that I'm a bit confused about how Film Distribution works in Europe. For example: Iron Man is being released in the US from Paramount on 30.09. The Movie is being released in Germany by Concorde on 01.10. Are the Transfers going to be the same on both? I read that the Audio on the Paramount Release has Dolby TrueHD and the Concorde Release has DTS HD-MA!!

Why is the film being released in Germany by Concorde and not Paramount??? I'm really intersted in understanding why and how this works ;-)

Thanks

AB

[2099net]

Given the huge cost of most modern movies, funding is normally achieved by pooling various investments. Sometimes in return for funding, overseas distribution rights are sometimes surrendered. This is most likely what happened with Iron Man. As well as distributing the film, Concorde will most likely have to fund the German dubbing and advertising themselves.

Just because Iron Man and Transformers are both Paramount films doesn't mean the funding methods will be the same, with the same conditions. For example Transformers is a Dreamworks/Paramount production while Iron Man is Paramount only. In both cases, substantial funding was also provided by the rights owners (Marvel Entertainment and Hasbro respectively).

Sometimes, especially with smaller films, films are funded and made without a distributor at all - every year at Sundance lots of independent films are shown without a distributor for example. In this case, distributors may bid for the rights to distribute the film in their territory. This often means smaller films have more fragmented distribution agreements than bigger budget films.

[American Baron]

Thanks for the answer. Would I then be correct in assuming that Concorde is respnsible for creating their own Transfer and that the transfers are indeed not the same? This is obviously the case with the Audio (Paramount=Dolby TrueHD, Concorde=DTS HD-MA).

It's simply confusing because being an American living in Germany I like to read the Reviews from this and other sites, but now I have my Doubts that the Disks I purchase in Germany are the same as the ones that were reviewed.

Cheers

AB